Which Version Mint or Fedora

[MGunny]

We are tired of the Windows garbage that has been forced upon us. So I am wondering which is better for my use. Fedora or Mint. We have 4 PCs in the house one is a Gaming PC with an Nvidia Graphics card. I need a O.S. that will do everything Windows will do, from Gaming to streaming, To Video Conferencing, We would need to be able to open MS Word pad, MS Note Pad, Use MS Teams, and be able to move our personal files over from Windows 10. We saw that Linus Torvalds uses Fedora, but others have recommended Mint. So which is easiest to use for us older people that have been around since before Windows 3.1 Which one is more polished and easiest to use Fedora or Mint? Which one would be less likely for me to have to attempt to edit code for functionality? Thanks in Advance for any advice. (NOTE: 3 of the P.C. can Run Windows 11, one is an older Panasonic Tuff Book, that Runs Windows 10)

 

[tinfoil-hat]

You could try Fedora and Mint trough a LiveUSB. then choose what distro you like better

 

[APTI]

best thing was mentioned already. try both on liveusb and see what you like.
personal opinion....

Fedora is best. great well supported system with most things working right off and it comes with gnome which is nice interface but needs resources. 8G ram is what you need. If you don't have 8G then fedora with xfce or other light desktop.

Mint... looks like windows and is great for windows users but personally I find a bit lacking because of the interface.

Both are linux and work the same under the hood so either is good.

 

[Alexzee]

Fedora is good and I had success in running it for 4 years.

For Gaming I recommend Nobara Linux based on Fedora.

Nobara Linux | The Nobara Project

Nobara is a Fedora-based experience tuned for gaming, streaming, and content creation — with everything ready out of the box.

nobaraproject.org

With Linux Mint and everyday use you can't go wrong.
Libre Office is an alternative to Microsoft Word. and Most Linux distrubutions come with Libre Office and note pad programs.

Easy to install from the software manager or the command line if necessary to pull from the distributions repositories.

 

[Alexzee]

You can also try Mint and Fedora in a virtual machine is you don't want to prepare a usb thumb drive Live.
Rufus works if you'd like to use it.

Rufus - Create bootable USB drives the easy way

Rufus: Create bootable USB drives the easy way

rufus.ie

Ventoy is another choice.

Ventoy

Ventoy is an open source tool to create bootable USB drive for ISO files. With ventoy, you don't need to format the disk again and again, you just need to copy the iso file to the USB drive and boot it.

www.ventoy.net

Zoom under Debian Linux and MX Linux (Debian based) on my Sony Viao worked very well.

Video Conferencing, Web Conferencing, Webinars, Screen Sharing

Zoom is the leader in modern enterprise video communications, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing, chat, and webinars across mobile, desktop, and room systems. Zoom Rooms is the original software-based conference room solution used around the world in board...

zoom.us

Don't forget to back up all of your files and data before you make the final installation of Linux to your HDD.

Overall, Linux Mint is the easiest for folks older and new to Linux.

 

[Brickwizard]

It depends on how old is your kit, if its under a year-old try MX-AHS and Fedora, if its 1 to 7 years old then most distributions will work well Mint LMDE ,Ubuntu, Parrot home edition, Mint 22 the list is endless, if over 7 years look for something a little lighter Mint LMDE, Peppermint Devuan based Linux Lite & etc

 

[fruqal22]

I'd say Mint. Out of the distros I've tried, I'd say Mint and Bazzite(-DX) are the most user friendly and don't require the terminal most of the time.

I've had a great experience with Bazzite for gaming and content creation, but go with whatever you feel like after using a LiveUSB of said distro before you fully commit.

 

[MGunny]

Let me add this 3 of the PCs can Run Windows 11, with no problem, we just don't want Windows 11 one is an older Panasonic Tuff Book, that Runs Windows 10, and can not run Windows 11 because of the hardware requirements, and the person that owns it refuses to give it up, as it saved his life in Afghanistan. All of the PCs have 8 GB of ram or more. 3 with Intel Processors, 1 with an AMD Ryzen Processor. Like I said in my Original post, One has an Nvidia GPU, which we have heard was not Linux friendly, AND we would need to access Word Pad, Note Pad backup files from a USB Drive. (It is not about Writing NEW Documents, it's about accessing old Documents required for work) We are also required to have Microslop Teams for work. (some people Answering my Original Post seem to have Misunderstood those Factors) With so many Distros of Linux, it is difficult for us Stuck with Windows for years people to figure this all out. We also do not have a whole lot of time to try out multiple distros of Linux, as 3 of the 4 would have to be up running and able to do what was needed in a few hours. Thanks for your help.

 

[ron.alan]

I would keep Windows on one of those machines if I were you (the one that is gamed on). If I had to choose between Mint and Fedora, I'd go with Mint. I would recommend overall Devuan, but that is definitely not as newbie friendly as Mint.

 

[APTI]

Let me add this 3 of the PCs can Run Windows 11, with no problem, we just don't want Windows 11 one is an older Panasonic Tuff Book, that Runs Windows 10, and can not run Windows 11 because of the hardware requirements, and the person that owns it refuses to give it up, as it saved his life in Afghanistan. All of the PCs have 8 GB of ram or more. 3 with Intel Processors, 1 with an AMD Ryzen Processor. Like I said in my Original post, One has an Nvidia GPU, which we have heard was not Linux friendly, AND we would need to access Word Pad, Note Pad backup files from a USB Drive. (It is not about Writing NEW Documents, it's about accessing old Documents required for work) We are also required to have Microslop Teams for work. (some people Answering my Original Post seem to have Misunderstood those Factors) With so many Distros of Linux, it is difficult for us Stuck with Windows for years people to figure this all out. We also do not have a whole lot of time to try out multiple distros of Linux, as 3 of the 4 would have to be up running and able to do what was needed in a few hours. Thanks for your help.

libre office will read word pad and notepad files. MS teams is also functional since it is an online thing and works through the browser. At least that is how I have used it on linux fedora without issue out of the box.

You'll find lots of people pushing mint here. Mostly because it was easy for them from windows because it worked similar. But when you are ready for a real OS try ubuntu or fedora. My personal opinion so make your own choice after using each a bit.

 

[wizardfromoz]

@MGunny I would suggest that you get in touch with either of

• RHEL - Red Hat Enterprise Linux or
• SLES - Suse Linux Enterprise Server

and ask them what they might be able to do to satisfy your needs.

Neither Fedora nor Linux Mint is going to satisfy your needs, at least based on the information you have given us above, let alone what has not been said eg

• Are "we" all in the same business?
• Are "we" all networked and if so by what means?
• and so on

The rig that needs to be kept maintaining the status quo for now while any conversion to Linux might be made is not the one for Gaming, but rather the one that has the most mission-critical need to be functional.

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz

 

[f33dm3bits]

For gaming it's better to have up-to-date software, so I would go with Fedora KDE Plasma Desktop or Fedora Workstation. However it may be useful to know which gpu you have and what type of games you are planning on playing, AAA games or Indie games?

 

[theLegionWithin]

I need a O.S. that will do everything Windows will do, from Gaming to streaming, To Video Conferencing, We would need to be able to open MS Word pad, MS Note Pad, Use MS Teams, and be able to move our personal files over from Windows 10.

there are many other distros other than Mint or Fedora - I prefer Arch myself. I understand you dont really want to take time to find the right distro but there's no "one size fits all" here. that's what Microsoft does. you're going to have to pick one or distro hop as many of us do before settling on the distro we like. I'd recommend using https://distrowatch.com/search.php to find yours.

Office365 and Teams both function in a browser and that's going to be the best way to get at them unless you want to spin up a win11 VM (which defeats the purpose of installing linux in the first place). there are some janky workarounds but I havent tried any of them and they look kind of sketchy anyway, but here's a link --> https://gist.github.com/eylenburg/38e5da371b7fedc0662198efc66be57b

many text editors exist, I happen to enjoy using kwrite (part of the KDE suite). I suspect you need to access legacy rtf and doc files - not sure if kwrite supports those, but you could try it. also not sure why you havent converted that data over to a modern file format yet but if you get the time you should do it. dont put it off.
- fun little story on why you dont want to wait too long.... I've been in computers/IT my entire professional career. a few jobs ago, we had a geotechnical engineer who needed to get data from a study that he had participated in 30 years prior - mid 1980s, it was stored on 360k 5.25" floppy. I had to explain - multiple times - that even if the data was on the disk (questionable at best) that it might as well never have existed because there was no way to get Corporate to shell out the funds needed to buy something that could interface with that storage medium. he did not like that answer! ah, the epic meltdown he had brings a smile to my face now, over 10 years later.

anyway - linux is all about choices. choose wisely, and good luck